SED Commissioner King in town to talk reforms, particularly the Common Core

State Education Commissioner John King is in Westchester today and tomorrow talking about his various reforms.

He’ll speak later today at Manhattanville about the whole reform agenda and its goal: “college and career readiness” for high school graduates.

Tomorrow he’s speaking at a “leadership forum” being put on by Education Week at the Hilton in Rye Brook. The forum — called “Road Maps to Common Core Success” — will feature educators from NYS and other states explaining the new Common Core standards.

According to Ed Week, King will discuss:

A broad range of open source material freely available to districts to drive instruction.

Professional development network teams throughout the state supporting districts during common core implementation plan.

Instructional shifts for the common core that will be reflected in the 2013 common core assessments for English language arts and mathematics.

That last point — how the Common Core will be reflected in new state tests next month — is the subject of much discussion, even obsession, on the part of teachers and administrators. Many fear that the tests, which the state says will be more difficult, will result in lower student scores and worse teacher evaluations.

The forum will also feature lead educators from Boston, Washington, D.C., Cleveland and elsewhere.

Gary Stern covered education in the Lower Hudson Valley for several years during the early 1990s. Now's he back on the beat. He believes that schools are one of the main reasons that people live around here and that educational issues -- from curriculum to financing -- are among the most challenging things that journalists can write about. He continues to be amazed by the complexity of educational jargon.
Gary got his B.A. at SUNY Buffalo and his M.A. from the University of Missouri Journalism School (where his master's thesis was about the best ways to cover education). He lives in White Plains with his wife and two sons, who attend public schools.